MS-Word: Automatically Open Most Recent Document

For many people it is useful if open the most recently used document automatically opens when they launch MS-Word. It’s easy enough to do, let’s see how.

Many people look for a facility in Microsoft Word that could open the last used document automatically. That is to say, when you open MS-Word, the most recently used document should also open on its own. This helps those folks who open and close a document quite often.

Most people just open a particular file from Windows Explorer –but the above mentioned demand is a sensible one. So, here I am to tell you how such an objective could be fulfilled. There are two ways to do this. Lets have a look:

Use Run Command to Automatically Open Last Used Document

Click on the Start button and then type the following command in the “Search Programs and files” box:

winword.exe /mFile1

Click on Start button and type the command

Press enter and MS-Word will open with the most recently opened document. This command has two parts. The first part (winword.exe) launches MS Word and the second part ( /mFile1 ) opens the last opened document.

NOTE: In Windows XP use, Start > Run and then type the above command.

Create a Shortcut to Open the Most Recent Document

The command explained in previous section works fine but it would be much easier to use if you create a shortcut for it. Go to Desktop and take right click on any empty area. Select New > Shortcut option.

A box will pop-up and it will ask you to browse or type the location of the file to be opened. In this case we want to open winword.exe (this is the file that launches MS-Word). Click on Browse button and go to the location where this file is located. Once you find it, select this file and click OK button. Usually this file is located in C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office folder.

Lalit Kumar is the Principal Author and Founder of TechWelkin. He is a web explorer and he enjoys finding useful information on the Internet. He loves to put things together to create a bigger solution. Lalit is passionate about technology, languages and literature. You can contact Lalit via email (techwelkin [at] gmail [dot] com) or Facebook (facebook.com/techwelkin).